SSC CPO SI and ASI Model Paper 3

Directions (Q. 191–195): In the following questions, read the following passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.
In Europe, before the Enlightenment of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, education was the responsibility of parents and the church. With the French and American Revolutions, education was established also as a public function. It was thought that the state, by assuming a more active role in the sphere of education, could help to make education available and accessible to all. Education had thus far been primarily available to the upper social classes and public education was perceived as a means of realising the egalitarian ideals underlining both revolutions.
However, neither the American Declaration of Independence (1776) nor the French Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789) protected the right to education as the liberal concepts of human rights in the nineteenth century envisaged that parents retained the primary duty for providing education to their children. It was the states obligation to ensure that parents complied with this duty, and many states enacted legislation making school attendance compulsory. Furthermore,child labour laws were enacted to limit the number ofhours per day children could be employed, to ensure childrenwould attend school. States also became involved in the legalregulation of curricula and established minimum educationalstandards.